The wind power outfits that have set out to destroy Scotland are peopled by the usual type of bullies and thugs – that are quick to send in the muscle, in efforts to generate ‘community support’ for these things:

Faced with a brand of ‘corporate social responsibility’ that would have done the GDR’s Stasi proud, many might have given up and retreated to lick their wounds. But, the Scots are a tenacious bunch, who never say die:

And now – through their undying efforts to protect the heritage that is the rugged, unspoilt beauty of its majestic Uplands – Highlanders can raise a dram (or three) to celebrate a mighty victory for common sense and Scotland.

A CONTROVERSIAL £120 million wind farm proposal has been thrown out by the Scottish Government who admitted that it would scar the Cairngorms National Park.

The 31-turbine Allt Duine development was to be sited within a designated Wild Land area in the Monadhliath mountains near Aviemore.

After a lengthy public inquiry, Deputy First Minister John Swinney has concluded the plan did not represent sustainable development, adding: “The Scottish Government’s policy on wind farms strikes a careful balance between maximising Scotland’s huge green energy potential and protecting some of our most scenic landscape and wild areas.

“We have been clear that wind farms can only be built in the right places and planning policy sets out rigorous steps to ensure wind farms are sited appropriately and sensitively. I have considered the Allt Duine application fully and have refused permission as the proposal would have a significant and unacceptable landscape and visual impacts in the local area, including on the Cairngorms National Park.”

The proposed turbines, which would have stood at 125 metres, would have been visible from nearly 26,000 hectares of the national park, including landmark high points such as popular Munros including Ben Macdui, Cairn Gorm and Braeriach.

The application, by RWE Innogy, was opposed by all statutory consultees, including the government’s own advisers Scottish Natural Heritage, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, Cairngorms National Park Authority and Highland Council.

But RWE Innogy UK has expressed disappointment, claiming it prevents a multi-million pound energy project from going ahead along with the creation of up to 100 jobs. Spokesman Mike Parker said: “We believe that we have designed a wind farm that is appropriate for the area in terms of the location, number and size of the turbines.

“At a time when the industry is under fire from the UK government it is increasingly damaging that this decision has been made. We would like to remain committed to investing in renewable energy projects in Scotland and to doing what we can to invest in the Scottish economy through jobs and community investments.

“However the result on this project has been discouraging. We will now consider the findings further before deciding next steps.”

Chris Townsend, a spokesman for the Save Monadhliath Mountains campaign, welcomed the decision, saying: “This is a victory for common sense, the safeguarding of the wild land in the Monadhliath Mountains and the absolute protection of the Cairngorms National Park. This scheme was the wrong development in the wrong location.”The Scotsman

Monadhliath Mountains: precisely as nature meant them to be.

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To our Scottish brothers and sisters, we raise one too, and wish the victors slàinte mhath!

But before we leave this bonnie tale, we can’t help but square up on the drivel in the piece above, that the project would have led to the “creation of up to 100 jobs”. No it wouldn’t.

Once the turbines had been planted, the project would have created less than a handful of full-time jobs, all involving maintenance or repairs.

Hubris and overstatement are, of course, the stock-in-trade for wind weasels, wherever they ply their trade – Scotland – no different.

Here’s a report on yet another wind industry jobs fantasy beat-up, being beaten down by …. you guessed it …. reality.

Only six per cent of the 30,020 jobs projected to be created in Scotland by 2015 through the growth of the offshore wind industry have actually materialised, the Sunday Herald can reveal.

A 2010 report on the future of the sector commissioned by industry body Scottish Renewables forecast that, under the most optimistic scenario, 30,020 full-time equivalent jobs would be in existence by 2015 and that this number would grow to 48,554 by 2020.

But the most recent figures show that in 2013 just 1,842 people were employed in the sector in 2013: a figure that is unlikely to have changed substantially as no offshore wind farms have been built in Scottish waters since then.

Those 1,842 created jobs are however more than twice the number of the study’s worst case scenario projection of 741 jobs by 2015, but far short of the 17,076 estimated under a second “more moderate” development scenario and considerably less than the 5,346 projected under the study’s third scenario of the number of jobs that would be created by 2015 “if Scotland fails to capture the economic benefits of offshore wind development.”

The gap between optimism and reality for Scotland’s offshore wind industry was laid bare last week when the South Korean multinational Samsung Heavy Industries said it would not be going ahead with a planned £100 million offshore wind turbine factory in Methil in Fife, which would have brought 500 jobs to one of Scotland’s most deprived areas.

The project was Scotland’s last remaining hope of creating hundreds of construction jobs in the offshore wind sector, after Spanish wind power firm Gamesa earlier this year dropped plans to build a wind turbine factory and servicing yard for the offshore energy sector in Leith, which would have seen the creation of 800 high-skilled engineering jobs.

In the end the Methil project – which received £6 million from Scottish Enterprise – only led to the creation of 20 research and development jobs following the installation of a 7MW test turbine in the Firth of Forth in 2013, which is now likely to be sold to the Glasgow-based Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult.

If offshore wind finally takes off in Scotland (so far only one offshore wind farm, the 180MW Robin Rigg farm in the Solway Firth, has been installed in Scottish waters) Scottish Renewables believes that more jobs will be created through the operation and maintenance of wind farms than from the construction of turbines or components.

Lindsay Roberts, senior policy manager for offshore wind at the industry body, told the Sunday Herald that the 2010 report’s best case scenario prediction of 30,020 jobs by 2015 was predicated on an assumption that there would be 10GW of installed capacity in Scottish waters by 2020.

“That is clearly now unachievable,” she said. “We appear to be on track to deliver within the lower scenario ranges.”

“The industry across the UK, but particularly in Scotland, is adjusting to a markedly different policy and funding landscape to that envisaged just a few years ago.

“The visibility of a sustainable market throughout the 2020s is the single most important driver of cost reduction in offshore wind. This is partly due to the ability to create a market of sufficient size to drive competition between multiple turbine suppliers and that’s why clarity over the UK Government’s long term support for this sector is so important.”

Roberts disagreed with criticism from the anti-wind farm lobby that Scotland’s deeper waters and more extreme wind conditions make it less suitable for offshore wind farms than England.

“The shallower, more benign, waters found south of the border were a perfect place for a young offshore wind industry to start in the UK but our technology and experience has now developed to a level that makes exploiting more challenging sites around the UK and in Scotland, not just possible, but desirable,” she said.

Linda Holt, spokesperson for the campaign group Scotland Against Spin, said that Samsung’s decision to pull out of the Methil project was “inevitable because Scotland’s offshore wind industry is a dead duck” and that the estimates of 30,020 jobs coming to Scotland by 2015 were “hilarious”.

Holt points to the fact that generous public subsidies have spawned almost 20 wind farms off the coast of England and Wales over the last decade but during that time only one offshore farm has been built in Scottish waters.

“The main reason is that the technical and financial challenges of building and servicing wind farms off the Scottish coast are very much greater than for wind farms in England and Wales. These are located in shallower waters, with less harsh weather and closer to centres of demand for electricity than Scottish ones would be.”Herald Scotland

Could it be true. Could Aviemore now be considered a safe place to buy a house? Is ‘Monarch of the Glen’ country now safe from the threat of industrial wind turbines? Can life now return to normal after this disastrous period in the history of Scotland? One can only hope so.

Well done to the Deputy First Minister John Swinney. Good call!

I for one will definitely be looking to visit the Cairngorms on my return to Scotland. With beautiful scenery, castles, hill walking, rare birds, wildlife, lochs, rivers, salmon, steam trains and of course Scots! I may even stay…for good!

In the words of Rab C. Nesbitt… “Hands across the sea!”

To the other Scottish expats like myself, currently living ‘down under’. Take note of what is happening back in Scotland.

Portland in South West Victoria. You should be ashamed of yourselves and how you have jumped to the tune of the wind developers. Cape Nelson and Cape Bridgewater are now full of turbines, and tonnes and tonnes of concrete that will be there forever! They have become an industrial wasteland. Not the iconic tourist destinations they once were.

HERE, HERE Crispin, and I expect you also meant to add Single Malt Scotch to your list, at least I would.
Its so sad so many people who live in cities and suburbia fail to get out and about into the regional and rural areas of their countries, to see the damage done by these things and to recognise what they have lost and what cannot be reversed.
It saddens me even more when I hear those who live in these beautiful areas say they can be made better by installing massive industrial machines across vast areas, turning them into industrial wastelands. Yes job creation is necessary, but surely they can find other ways of creating them than to destroy whole districts for the sake of what are just a few jobs.
I also feel ashamed when I consider those who are meant to be intelligent promote the destruction of environments and eco-systems using the excuse it is necessary to save the earth for our children’s future. What future do they have if the environment and all it has to offer is destroyed by reckless industrialisation.
Hopefully it will not be long before we hear that no-more of these massive turbines are being installed anywhere and regional and rural areas are once again alive with the sound of nature not the thump, rumble, screech and vibration of manmade industrial wind turbines.

Ah, they say its good to dream, but those who would like to dream of building off Scottish shores will end up having nightmares instead.
When will this industries supporters accept it has no future. They have come to the end of their ability to fool people with stories of large numbers of jobs, ‘free’ energy, reliable energy. They really need to stop ‘dreaming’ and accept no matter where they look to install these things they will have problems.
1. If they are installed close to people they will have to accept people will become ill and face the consequences that will bring.
3. Placing them onshore creates angst with neighbours, adverse health problems, environmental and eco-system concerns, and the inability to supply a reliable energy supply due to a reliance on how the wind will perform from moment to moment. They will be anxiously waiting for gale force winds so they can appear to be producing a worthwhile amount of energy. Something not wanted by the majority of people because such winds can cause damage to buildings, crops, forests etc.
3. Off shore sites have their own problems re the aquatic environment, and eco-system, safe passage of boats especially in stormy weather, fear of gale force winds which could cause catastrophic damage to turbines and equipment, and if the forecast is severe they may have to turn the turbines off to try and limit the damage. The extra cost of installing offshore is also a problem when investors consider investment uncertainty in relation to storm damage, loss of production time due to storm damage and unreliable production even when the weather is calm.
This industry has too many problems and the lies they have been telling are now exposed and investment is drying up as subsidisation from Governments is withdrawn and opposition on all fronts gets stronger with more projects being refused planning permission.
It’s a dead in the water and on dry land industry and investment money could and should be spent more wisely.